Fundamentally, retrieval queries ("queries") are requests for information. A query may be expressed using a formal query language such as SQL, or may take the form of a natural language question or an unorganized list of search terms. A query may further be represented by a "query object" containing data and/or instructions relating to the query.
Queries are said to be issued by programs called "query clients," often under the control of a human user. Such queries are said to be received and processed by other programs called "query servers." For a particular query, a query server generally consults one or more databases containing information that includes the information requested by the query, and returns the requested information to the query client from which the query was received in the form of a "query result." In some cases, the query result comprises a result table divided into rows and columns. Each result table row generally corresponds to a different item satisfying the query, while each column generally corresponds to one piece of information about each item. For example, a result table for a query requesting information on world wide web ("web") pages containing the word "ragtop" might contain 5 rows, each corresponding to a different web page containing "ragtop." The query result might further contain 3 columns: a first column containing a reference to the web page to which each row corresponds, a second column containing the title of the web page to which each row corresponds, and a third column containing the last date on which the web page to which each row corresponds was updated.
While query clients and query servers in some cases execute on the same computer systems, some query clients and query servers are designed to execute on different computer systems. Where a query client is executing on a computer system other than the computer system on which the query server is executing, the query client communicates the query to the query server via a data network connecting the query client and query server. The query may either be communicated directly from the query client to the query server, or it may be communicated indirectly through any number of intervening computer systems.
Even where the query is communicated indirectly through intervening computer systems, such intervening computer systems generally pass the query and resulting query result through intact, without modifying or filtering either the query or the query result. This querying model allows the user of the query client to exercise a large measure of autonomy in issuing queries and receiving their results.
The inventors have recognized significant disadvantages that attend the use of this model within certain organizations. First, in accordance with this model, organizations are unable to limit both the set of users that may issue queries and the kind of queries that may be issued and the results that may be received. Second, in accordance with this model, organizations are unable to assist users by tailoring the query or the query result based upon systematic factors relating to the organization or the user's position within it.
In view of these disadvantages, a new model for managing queries and query results within an organization would provide significant utility.